O'Neil Is KOA, Rodin takes Battle at the Bullring at Humboldt

 In what was a spectacularly huge day and evening of racing at the Humboldt Speedway, Jake O'Neil was crowned the winner of the King of American fifty lap Modified feature and went home with fifteen thousand dollars for his efforts while North Dakota's Lucas Rodin won with a dominating performance in the fifty lap feature for  the B Mod Battle at the Bullring and took home ten thousand dollars for his efforts. Other racing action during the day saw Kale Westover win his first ever USMTS Modified feature in the leftover event from Friday night while the two Stock Car main were split between  Beau Davis and Chanse Hollatz. 

Friday's track prep issues were largely a thing of the past by Saturday but it took a huge amount of effort by many people to get the track back in decent racing shape. The weather finally helped cooperate also with no more precipitation plus some nice sunshine and drying breezes all helping. Many were giving big credit to the improved conditions to the efforts of Mississippi Thunder Speedway's Bob Timm. Timm, who was on hand to help with his son Jake's Modified racing efforts, is also the main track prep guy at their track along the border of the Mississippi River in west central Wisconsin. Bob jumped on one of the graders and did yeoman work as he bladed and redid the racing surface and while by the evening's final races it started to show some "character", this was after many races and several hundred laps of racing which was bound to have an effect on the track. It was, however, light years better for the finale than earlier in the weekend. By the way, Saturday's racing program would  present a card of thirty racing events and more laps than I would care to calculate, including five feature races of which the last two were fifty and sixty laps in length. Racing would get started shorty after 4 pm and the final checkered would wave just past Midnight. 

Nearly all the race cars and a large crowd would be on hand for the afternoon start of the racing and after the third and final set of heats were presented for the B Mods, it was time for feature racing with the two left over events from Friday night up next on the card. 

The Stock Car feature would see Ed Griggs take the early lead and hold the top spot for nearly the first half of the race before he was overtaken by Beau Davis. Davis would lead the rest of the way for the win but things would get tight at the end with North Dakota's Aaron Olson charging up to within a car length at the finish with Derrick Agee finishing third. 

Twenty seven drivers would then start the make up thirty five lap feature left over from Friday night. Paying five thousand dollars to win, drivers fought to run well for both cash and series points while still trying to protect their cars for the even bigger money race that would be coming up later that night. 

Kale Westover, who is running for rookie of the year with the series, would lead the opening lap after starting on the pole. He would be tracked down for the top spot by Dereck Ramirez who would lead briefly but Westover would fight his way back into the top spot. 

Yellows near the halfway point would bunch up the field and bring Ramirez and Tyler Peterson back up to Westover but each time Kale would pull away on the green. Many were waiting for the inevitable to happen but Westover was simply too strong on this afternoon and he survived each challenge and at the end pulled away for a comfortable win. Westover, who has always done well here and at other tracks running B Mods, has made the transition smoothly and his Western Flyer chassis would carry him to victory lane. Ramirez and Peterson would be trailed by Dustin Sorensen and Tyler Wolff at the finish. 

It was then time to get into the even bigger money for all classes. The "stepladder" of qualifiers would greet the B Mods with only the top twelve in combined points from the multiple heats automatically moving into the main event. The rest of the nearly ninety car field would have to fight it out for twelve spots and of course, that would make all the Last Chance races like mini wars. The Mods would use their regular format of time trials, heats and three B Features to set their field while the Stock Cars would draw for position and use passing points to set their main event lineup. 

The Stock Car feature would come out first and Chanse Hollatz would get some retribution in the second feature race. He crashed out of the first feature in the very early laps but would have a much better time of it in the night cap. Derek Brown would be the early leaded but Hollatz would fight his way past Brown to take over the top spot and then proceed to dominate the rest of the event. He would have a fairly easy time of it until Angel Munoz would challenge in the late going  but Hollatz would hold off him and Brown to take the win. 

 Twenty nine cars would start the sixty lap Modified feature and it was former winner this season Dustin Sorensen that would lead the early laps. He was fighting off Kollin Hibdon and Ramirez in the early going but on a charge was O'Neil who started tenth and quickly moved up as he was attacking the high side of the track and making it work. He powered into contention and he and Ramirez battled for second but O'Neil just kept on the hunt and was soon all over Sorensen. 

O'Neil would get past Sorensen to take over the lead and while the field would remain fairly close, only the yellows would allow them to challenge. A late race stop with just six laps would allow the pack to bunch one last time but O'Neil had them covered as he pulled away once again and never slipped as he drove on to victory lane. Darren Fuqua made an impressive charge from sixteenth to fight his way into second and he would edge Sorensen for that spot with Ramirez and Jason Hughes completing the top five. Focusing on Late Model endeavors this year, a week off from that circuit would allow O'Neil to show that his Modified skills have not left him. 

The final event would be the Battle at the Bullring fifty lap feature race for the B Mods and it turned into a remarkable race for a couple of reasons. First of all, with such a balanced field and so many good drivers, the thought that one driver would lead the whole race and not just lead but dominate seemed unthinkable. However, that is exactly what the "North Dakota Nightmare", Lucas Rodin did as after dominated the qualifying events, he was even stronger if that was possible in pulling away from the field and totally controlling the fifty lap event. He would build up a nearly full straightaway lead on the field and there was absolutely no one on hand that could keep up with him. 

The other remarkable facet of this race was that with all the cars and all the money on the line, one would expect some aggressive driving and the resulting yellow flag flurry. Wrong. Except for the single yellow with thirty nine laps complete when Brennan Gave stalled on the back chute, this race would have went nonstop for fifty laps! As it was, the one yellow event for that distance was remarkable and all fifteen drivers still on the track at the end were on the lead lap. 

Rodin didn't get spooked by the late yellow and pulled away once again as he found a line around the track that was fast and there was no one that could keep up with him. A great battle for second would see Travis Saurer hold off Andy Bryant for the spot with Kyle Slader and Shadren Turner completing the top five. 

Rodin, the 2021 WISSOTA National Midwest Modified champion, would score a dominating win in his SSR chassis built in Spring Valley Wisconsin  with power from Dakota Engine Builders in Jamestown North Dakota. Interestingly, while there were a large number of new cars on hand for this show for the top runners,  Rodin kept the car that he used to win the title last year and he reported that Saturday night's win was the sixtieth night on this car!

After all the trials that the track management and USMTS officials had to endure this week, it was good to see that the final night was a success, both in terms of the racing presented and the size of the crowd. I know that there were a lot of strained and frayed nerves among any number of people and the effort expended by many to get this show in was considerable. And while both classes put on a great show and deserve all the money that they are racing for, it is not ideal to have such a big event for both classes on the same weekend and hopefully next year that won't have to be the case for what would be the third year in a row. 

Thanks to Todd Staley and all the USMTS officials and workers and the large crew under the direction of John Allen that made their first promotion at this track certainly a memorable one. 

A Muddled Mess Marks USMTS King of America/Battle at The Bullring

 The annual King of America for the USMTS Modifieds and the Battle at The Bullring for B Mods/Midwest Mods/Sport Mods is always one of the more highly anticipated events that mark the start of the racing season. Held annually at the Humboldt Speedway just outside of Humboldt Kansas, this year's edition of this event, now in its eleventh year for the Modifieds and seventh for the B at The B, has been anything but smooth. 

The Humboldt Speedway is under new ownership for 2022 as F.O.E. Enterprises has taken over ownership of the track, buying the facility from the Whitworth family , two of which still live just next door to the track. J.R. and Kati Sartain, who also own the Eighty One Speedway in Park City, having purchased that track two years ago, are the principle owners of the track and they have named well known local figure, John Allen from nearby Chanute, as the promoter of the track. Allen also runs things at Eighty One. 

Unfortunately, their reign at their new purchase has had anything but a smooth start and has been railroaded by poor weather conditions throughout the month of March here in Southeastern Kansas. 

The Battle at The Bullring was supposed to have been held the first week of March but rain, snow and cold saw that event postponed until this weekend, to be combined with the King of America race for the USMTS Modifieds. This also happened last year as the weather has been unforgiving to this event in recent years after the first few years ran off smoothly and impressively. 

Combining the two races is challenging under the best of conditions with huge numbers of race cars and a massive number of races to be held in three nights. But when the weather doesn't cooperate, it makes things even more challenging. 

Rain and cold weather that made the track unpreparable served to postpone the opening round of action which had been scheduled for Thursday night. Now track officials were under the gun as they had to squeeze three nights of racing into two nights as they opted to run the Thursday night show on Saturday afternoon as the Modifieds were scheduled for three full shows while the B Mods had two full nights of qualifying for their big finale on Saturday night. Stock Cars were also racing and they were too scheduled for three full shows. 

The turnout of race cars was again impressive with eighty nine B Mods, seventy two Modifieds and twenty four Stock Cars signing in to race. One hundred and eighty five race cars jammed the pit area and the overfull pits also. Drivers were on hand from twenty three states plus the Province of Ontario, Canada. Drivers from there tell me that until April 1st, they must pass a Covid test to get back across the border. 

Because of the muddy conditions, haulers were staged at a quarry down the road from the race track and brought into the grounds in groups where they were then sent to their pit stations, hoping to avoid getting stuck while also utilizing every inch of the pit area. Even with best intentions, a few rigs managed to get stuck during staging on Thursday. 

They had every hopes of getting the first program in for the Modifieds and Stock Cars on Thursday, along with the first two rounds of qualifying for the B Mods  but after getting everyone parked, it became apparent that the race track was simply not going to be in shape for racing to occur with the cool and cloudy conditions just not favorable for track drying. Everyone that examined the track I believe agreed and as much as they wanted to race on Thursday night, they just didn't want to tear up a lot of race cars and the track. 

So the decision was made to postpone Thursday night's action to Saturday afternoon and run the show with the three full programs as planned, a trick that they have learned to do before and as recent as last year when they had to do the same things. 

Unfortunately, Friday's weather didn't give them any help when it came to drying out the track. The temperatures remained very cool, the skies stayed cloudy and even a little rain and sleet fell during the morning hours. However, none of this was enough to halt the racing and Friday night's program took off before 7 pm following Modified qualifying. 

Unfortunately, the track just wasn't ready to race on and quickly became very rough with cars getting airborne as they bounced through the bumps and ruts as the drivers held on for dear life. It was not a good scene and certainly not something anyone wanted or hoped for. Much equipment was damaged and wrecked as the qualifying events quickly became very costly. Also, the quality of the races suffered greatly, a shame when considering all the good drivers in attendance. 

One of the more disappointing parts of qualifying was the news that Drake Troutman, who pulled all the way to the track from Pennsylvania and won a Modified heat race, was then disqualified for an unspecified technical violation. Troutman, who normally runs UMP Modifieds plus Late Models, thus became another casualty of the seemingly timeless differences in rules between sanctioning bodies that make  real interaction between racing groups nearly impossible. Three other B Mods were also disqualified during opening night action including one heat race where both the winner and second place finisher didn't pass muster. 

Behind the scenes a plan was already taking place as it became clear that it just wouldn't be possible to run any main events on this night without tearing up more equipment and putting drivers at risk. So they soldiered on and made it through two rounds of qualifying for the B Mods plus the Last Chance races for the Mods. What they were left with was main events for the Stock Cars and Mods and that was put on hold for Saturday afternoon.  Twenty eight races were held before the plug was finally pulled. It was certainly the roughest that I had ever seen this track and veteran race fans that attend here weekly could never remember a time when they saw the track like it was on this night. 

The logistics was worked out so that the two leftover feature races will be contested on Saturday afternoon plus the third round of qualifying for the B Mods(shortened from four rounds originally planned.) Once that is over, a full show for the Stock Cars and Modifieds will take place on Saturday evening along with the Last Chance races and feature for the B Mods. 

Because three shows are essentially being combined into two races, prize money will be adjusted making the two features that are going to be run pay more for the drivers.  So racing action will continued for those still having equipment capable of racing and those willing to take another shot at qualifying. The one question remains that with the still not very cooperative weather, will the track prep crew, who have been working almost nonstop for days, be able to make enough headway so that the track will be raceable for Saturday? That question remains to be answered. 

Ward Doubles for Nice Five Grand Weekend at SOS; Near Sweep for Hawkeye Racers

 Saturday night saw the wrap up  of the IMCA Southern Stampede at the Southern Oklahoma Speedway near Ardmore. The biggest money of the weekend would be on the line in Saturday night's feature races. The finale also saw by far the best weather of the week with near eighty degree temperatures, sunny skies and the strong winds even subsided somewhat. Announcer J-VAN broke out the shorts once again only this night it didn't storm to wrap up the racing. 

The format for the three classes racing on Saturday would be the same except for one obvious difference. The Modifieds would be starting their main event in three wide formation with thirty cars to take the green flag. All three classes would run extra distance races on this night and all would receive bigger checks for their efforts. 

The late afternoon race would start out with a special presentation as the Tulsa War Birds made an impressive fly by during the National Anthem to honor the event. with smoke trailing from them, they made a series of tree top fly by passes to give the event a great start. To add to the celebration, all the crews and drivers assembled on the back chute promptly at 5 pm which was the scheduled time for the fly by. The planes were on time and the program got started just at the advertised time. Unfortunately, once this was completed, the water trucks came out, slopped up the track and the first race of the night didn't take to the track for seventy one minutes. 

My only criticism of the entire event was that none of the three nights of racing started anywhere near the advertised time. Once the races got started, they did a nice job of keeping things moving along with one race right after the other but for some strange reason, the starting time seemed to have no relevance to those in charge, which was very puzzling. 

Moving on to other things, a big field of forty nine Modifieds was on hand to try and get into the thirty car starting field. Five heats and a couple of Jeff Broeg sized B Features would set the field with no provisional starters on this night as you either raced your way in or watched from the side lines. 

This track has taken a lot of laps over the last three nights of racing in an area that seems to be quite dry this Spring and before the Modified feature took to the track, they opted to re water and pack the track and on this night, it worked beautifully to restore what had been a narrow, bottom only groove track to a wide racing surface that promoted lots of exciting slide jobs. 

And it would be a couple of Iowa drivers that would lead the charge toward this kind of excitement as Ethan Braaksma would take the early lead from the outside of the front row over Matt Bonine and Wesley Veal. Ward would be the sandwich meat in the middle of row three but would quickly move to the front, moving into second by the time the red flag flew after Brent Hardwick, runner up on Friday night, got into the front stretch wall and flipped on to his roof. OK but steaming(the driver, not the car), the race would restart with Ward chasing Braaksma. 

Ward was the one instrumental in widening out the groove as he pounded the cushion early and when a few other drivers joined him up there, they blew off the crumbs and the racing got hot. Ward would throw a slider at Braaksma to take over the lead but one lap later, Ethan would return the favor and take the point. However, Ward was not done yet and he tried once again and this time was able to clear Braaksma and take over the top spot. 

The last nineteen laps of this race would go nonstop as the drivers did a great job running with their big field and the wide surface at SOS certainly helped.  Ward would pull out to a big lead and navigating his way through the traffic, he would not be challenged as he drove home for the win over Braaksma. A last corner pass by Jeff Taylor over Bonine for third kept it from being a top three sweep for Hawkeye drivers. There apparently is no racer's tape in Arkansas as Taylor ran three nights with a plain white car with no numbers on it but the transponders knew who he was as he edged out Matt for the "show" spot. Bonine would later get the "real racer" of the weekend award as he would be the only driver that would venture up to Beatrice Nebraska to race after spending most of the weekend in Oklahoma. He would make the feature in Nebraska, only to scratch out of the main with some type of mechanical problems and head home early after taking a rather long detour. 

Local favorites would keep the big crowd happy in the other two classes as William Gould and Bo Day would top the Stock Car and Southern Sport Mod feature respectively. 

Gould would fight off heavy pressure from Friday night winner Blake Clark to take the Stock Car main. Justin Whitehead would take the early lead and in fact, would run in front for most of the track. Gould moved to second and was following in the tire tracks of Whitehead as this race was run right on the bottom and before the final track prep was done. Whitehead was in "prevent mode" as he held the lower line with about five cars stacked up behind him, each looking for that one mistake to gain a position or more. 

Whitehead started to struggle more and more and when he finally slipped off the bottom, Gould was right there to jump into the lead. Whitehead got hung out to dry and and faded back a number of spots, as Clark was able to move into second and put the pressure on Gould. Clark began to pressure Gould just as William was earlier. Clark appeared to have the faster car but found no opening. On the last corner he went for broke but found the second groove to be way too slow as Gould drove on for the win with Clark's bold attempt costing him second as Brandon Taylor would drive under him for the spot. 

Day didn't show up to race until Saturday but he took the Maples Motorports car to victory lane after starting thirteenth on the field. Pole starter Jeramie Cox would lead nearly the first half of the race with  Jeremy Henry and then Friday night winner Tim Hamilton pressuring for the lead. This race was a tedious affair for most of the going with seven yellows, most during the first half of the race, keeping the field bunched and allowing Day plenty of time to gradually work his way forward. 

As spins and collisions took their toll, Day would eventually get up to second as Hamilton pressured hard for the lead but then started to fade. And when Cox slipped off the bottom, Day was right there to take over the lead. 

The late going saw Kyle Robinson put plenty of pressure on Day but Bo held his line and would drive on for the win over Robinson and Alex Hickham. The toll in this race was high as only ten of twenty four starters were around at the finish. 

Thanks goes out to all the track workers who had a long and challenging week of racing and especially to track owners and promoters Nicki and John Webb. I talked to several drivers who made long pulls and by passed other races to travel to SOS and they said that much of the reason they were there was because they had good things about the management, the track and the pay. All of these seemed to be on display during this weekend. 

Ward Dominates at Southern Oklahoma Speedway, Clark and Hamilton Are Also Winners

 The IMCA Southern Stampede continued on Friday night, March 18th at the Southern Oklahoma Speedway in Ardmore with the IMCA Mods, Stock Cars and Southern Sport Mods all in action. 

Friday night's weather was a little more amiable for racing than Thursday night had been and despite temperatures that were about twenty degrees cooler than they were on Thursday and a nasty North wind howling across the prairie, the sun was shining and racing would take place. 

A few extra cars made their way to the track for the Friday round and there were one hundred and two race cars on hand in the three classes offered, led by the Modifieds where a fine field of forty seven were on hand to battle for twenty four starting spots. 

A driver's only meeting was called for 4:30 pm and the drivers were offered the choice of paying their expected entry fee and racing for Thursday night's purse or getting a partial refund and racing for the Friday night purse, which interestingly was smaller across the board than the Thursday night offering. Most chose to have the track keep the entry fees from Thursday and race for the bigger money but it was an interesting proposal. When the driver's meeting was called, I had hopes that perhaps they were going to reschedule a doubleheader event for perhaps on Saturday so everyone could get three races in here this weekend but that would not be the case.

While I have enjoyed the hospitality and racing so far, one sticking point continues to be the inability to start at the advertised time, or even close to it. Once again on Friday, at the scheduled starting time, packing vehicles are still making laps around the track which at that time wasn't even close to being ready to be raced on. The only saving grace was that instead of thunderheads boiling overhead, we had sun shining down on us. It turned out to be sixty five minutes after the advertised starting time when the first race took a green flag, something that would not be tolerated in many places but seems to be an accepted way of doing business here . 

It does appear that part of the track prep procedure here is to really slop the track up as once racing begins, it does dry out very fast  and if not for the wet beginning, I think a rubbered up track could be very possible. In fact, they did stop at one point on Friday and throw down some water in the low groove as it did look like it was starting to rubber up and the Modified feature, which was run last, gave appearances that Tim Ward was nearly in not fully running in a rubbered up lower groove which did make him very fast. 

Qualifying heat races, done by pill draw, would set the fields for the three feature races. Only the Modifieds would need B Features on this night with two that were as large as most feature races at many tracks these days. Taking only the top two out of each heat means that that vast majority of drivers have to run three times to earn a check, something that I am not particularly in favor of. But that is one way, I guess, to ensure that more races are on the evening's program. 

However, in the Stock Car feature, theme of the night was "let 'em all run" as all thirty cars were slotted into the main with no B Feature run in that class. The result was the best feature race of the night but also the most damaging with several grinding collisions that badly damaged several cars and likely reduced the field for Saturday night's finale. 

There were officially four different leaders in the twenty five lap Stock Car main that saw a lot of three and for wide racing on the ultra wide three eighth mile oval here in Ardmore. The track doesn't have a lot of banking but it is super wide and at least early on in the Stock Car feature, cars were all over the track. 

Dennis Bissonnette was the early leader of the race until he was passed by William Gould, one of several drivers doing double duty in both Stock Cars and Modifieds. Quickly moving in to challenge were Jason Rogers and Shelby Williams with Williams quickly coming up from row four. There were several yellows in the first seven laps, mostly for minor spins but at that point there were two back to back grinding crashes that eliminated a number of cars with the infield looking like the back lot at a salvage yard. 

Gould was moving all over the track, trying to block as much as possible but finally Williams was able to sneak under him and take over the lead. Also moving up was Blake Clark, who had started tenth and with the leaders hugging the low groove, it was a battle to not give away the inside lane. 

As the laps grew short, Clark was nailed to the rear bumper of Williams and as they came for the white flag, Williams slipped off the bottom with Clark driving under him and taking over the lead. Williams then went to the cushion in turn one of the final lap, a lane not many were using, but he got a great run off the top side and accelerated past Clark down the back chute to retain the lead. 

Unfortunately for him, he had such a strong run that he wasn't able to back down enough and protect the low line in the third turn and he slid just high enough for Clark to duck under him. They raced to the line and Clark was the winner in a thriller by .009 seconds. Gould hung on for third with Iowa's Blake Adams crossing fourth but getting DQ'd for an unknown offense. 

Both cars of the Arkansas Hartwick family as well as Minnesota's Andy Altenberg were among those damaged in the big crash on the back chute on lap eight. 

The Sport Mod feature would see the lead exchanged three times before Tim Hamilton would take the checkered. Jimmy Day would be the early leader as he was running the cushion and flying in the early going. Several other drivers including Hamilton and Alex Hickham would work the low side as there were two distinct lines on the track. Hamilton would take over the lead for one lap following a yellow but then Day would use the top side to get his momentum back up and take the top spot once again. 

However, the high side seemed to gradually go away and by the halfway point, Hamilton would slip by on the low side as the leaders raced through traffic and would take over the lead. A late yellow would set up a six lap sprint to the finish and Hamilton would be smooth working the low side, and would drive home for the win. Day would find the top side slipping away and he would be passed late for second by Hickham with Rowdy Day, the big winner several weeks ago at Rocket Raceway Park, settling for fourth. Interestingly, IMCA Southern Sport Mods and USRA Limited Mods seem to be the same thing, as they slip back and forth from track to track without seemingly any changes being made to the cars. 

Ward would start on the pole and would lead all twenty five laps of  the Modified feature. He would only be challenged on restarts, of which there were two, until he could get him momentum going on the bottom, after which we would drive away from the pack. While many in the field were trying to pound the cushion, Ward would get a great run off the low side and simply pull away down the chutes. 

He was challenged by Kale Westover for a time until the top side started to go away and Westover would gradually fade, eventually to sixth. 

Ward's most persistent challenge would come from Brint Hartwick who would move into second after starting fifth. He was running the Ward line but not quite as good as Tim was, as he could maintain second but never challenge the leader. The last half of the feature would go green and those two would pull away from the field. There was heavy traffic to deal with at the end but Ward handled it nicely. The biggest move was by Ethan Braaksma who started seventeenth and would race into third right at the end in a scramble for positions. Only four drivers would not go the distance in this race. 

Saturday night there will be more money on the line in all three classes and the Modifieds will start their feature three wide and ten rows deep. 

Rain Wins the Opening Round of the Southern Stampede

 Returning to a track where I haven't been for a couple years, on Thursday, March 19th, I was on hand at the Southern Oklahoma Speedway in Ardmore for the opening night of three straight evenings of racing for the IMCA Southern Stampede. Racing for three straight nights would be the IMCA Modifieds, Stock Cars and Southern Sport Mods with nice payoffs for all three classes on all three nights. 

The Southern Oklahoma Speedway sits just South of the city of Ardmore on a busy sixty five mile per hour state highway but right across the highway from the track the railroad tracks run. And this is one busy rail line as trains are constantly moving both North and South along it. Even announcer Jerry VanSickle commenting on the trains going by so often and I am in agreement with him that there is something fascinating about rail traffic, especially to me from an area where there are absolutely no trains any more. 

When I was a kid, we used to live right across a dirt road from a busy rail line where both freight trains and passenger trains would run by very frequently. Most of the engineers knew my family so when they approached our place, they would blow the train horn to alert us. We would run down to the edge of the road and would wave at the train crew and they would wave back.  And on late nights laying in bed, I could here the train horn blow at the crossing a mile down the road and could always time just how long it was going to be before the train roared past out house. So when I see trains and hear then grinding away on the tracks, it always reminds me of a simpler time. 

But I digress. As I walked into the pits for the first time this week, I was temporarily confused, thinking that I had perhaps taking a wrong turn as was someplace entirely different than I was supposed to be. In point of fact, the first eight cars that I saw and wrote on my list were all from the great state of Iowa with both Mods and Stock Cars on hand. They were on hand to enjoy some early season racing and perhaps get away from the tv, where later the Hawkeyes would lay the biggest egg of the early rounds of the NCAA basketball tourney. But that is another story. 

Earlier as I was walking the grounds, kind of getting the lay of things, J-Van yelled hello to me from the tower where they were getting things set up. He gets to about as many races as I do. Not sure if that is a good thing or perhaps a sign of mass insanity!

The afternoon of race car prep at the track was highlighted by an incident worthy of Scott Bloomquist. Jeff "The Animal" Taylor was seen driving his Modified through the pits toward the facility exit and the next thing we all heard was the roar of a race car. Seems Mr. Taylor decided to take his race car for a test lap as he went screaming up and down the busy highway previously mentioned. I don't know if he had his seat belt fastened but if he would have been stopped by the Oklahoma State Police, that would have been the least of his worries!

I had a little fun with Texas Modified driver Joe Gomez in the pits before the action started. He had a very fine looking car but firmly attached to the roof of the car was a bright yellow rubber ducky! We both had a laugh about that as I questioned whether that was illegal aerodynamics under IMCA rules! That was one speed secret that his close friend and pit neighbor, Modified driver Roy Capps didn't have on his car. 

I would like to say that Gomez had a good evening but that wasn't the case as he was the innocent victim of another driver's error and he ended up crashing big time, doing what appeared to be heavy damage to his car and exiting the track on a hook. 

For two days the weather forecast had been pretty consistent and that generally isn't a good sign when they are calling for severe storms during the evening hours. That's what made it maddening when I headed up to the grandstands, ready for hot laps, only to find that the track had been generously over watered with no packing vehicles on the track. For at least thirty minutes the track sat empty until finally two gigantic packing vehicles pulled on to the track and helped immensely. However, their appearance was only ten minutes before the advertised starting time! Where were they for the last half hour?

Seriously, do tracks have some script that they follow so they make sure to over water the track on a night when storm clouds are rolling to the West and every second matters? When promptness is needed, that's when they decide to diddle around. When they did finally get going, they moved things along quickly but it was forty five minutes after the advertised starting time when the first green flag dropped as the clouds by now were boiling and the lightning flashing. 

Would they under any circumstances ever got the whole show completed? Probably not. But they likely could have finished up all the heat races, thus leaving them the possibility of running the rest of the program later during the weekend if they were so inclined. 

As it was, theytossed the scheduled running order with the Modifieds racing their heat races first, knowing that they were the only division that needed a B Feature on this night. I liked the fact that they were only running three classes for this special and not trying to pad the pits like too many tracks now do for early season specials. I also liked that they had planned an early starting time, even though it was a week night race; if only they would have followed through on their plan. 

As it was, we saw five interesting Modified heats with winners including Justin Whitehead, Mike Goodson, Drew Janssen, Troy Cordes and Brint Hartwick. The  first Sport Mod heat on the track when it finally started to rain after it appeared that we had dodged the worst storms which drifted off to our North. Also, fortunately, the track missed the biggest hail and rains as other areas not so far away had a rather nasty storm, but I just had a very few small hailstones ping off my car on my way back to the hotel. 

The car counts included forty five Modifieds, twenty seven Stock Cars and twenty two Southern Sport Mods, all figures that are likely to be larger the rest of the weekend since scheduled were three full shows with more drivers likely to make the weekend events when early starts are also planned. 

Texas Spring Nationals To Tyler Davis, Day and Smith Repeat Winners

 Despite some morning showers in the North Texas area, the second night of the USMTS Texas Spring Nationals came off as planned on Saturday night, March 5 and it was Kansas driver Tyler Davis that earned his first ever USMTS feature win and the ten thousand dollars that went along with that memorable win. Also taking feature wins on Saturday night were Rowdy Day(his second of the weekend), Michael Smith(also his second of the weekend when the apparent winner was disqualified) and Shelby Williams. 

After the rains stopped, it was a sticky but pleasant night for racing(particularly in March) and another large crowd was on hand for the finale to this opening weekend of racing at the newly named Rocket Raceway Park(I should have asked how the name was given but I didn't) for new owners Kevin Rogers and Kevin Sustaire. 

After the challenging conditions of Friday night, the Modified and Factory Stock fields were down slightly while the Limited Mods were up and the Stock Cars hung tough with the same number and one hundred and thirty nine drivers signed in to race. 

The program would be the same as on Friday night in terms of qualifying for all classes with the only difference being the Modifieds would go an extra ten laps for an extra five grand while the other classes would also see a boost in pay for themselves. 

It was a substantially different race track for Saturday night's finale as both Kevin S. and Todd Staley spent most of the day on the track with heavy equipment, trying to straighten out the first and second corner that was the source of most of the issues on Friday night. What they ended up with was a track that was considerably smoother, very slick and slower but still allowed much side by side racing while not tearing the guts out of so many cars. 

Again it would be seven heats and three B Features that would set the field for the evening's longest race, with the Mods set to go fifty laps. And for one of the top finishers, that extra distance would be very much damaging. 

Twenty seven cars would take the green flag(not quite as many provisional starters on Saturday) with Jacob Bleess and Davis on the front row. Davis would lead lap one, Bleess would steal the lead the next lap but on lap three, Davis would again regain the point and he would lead every lap after that. 

While at face value that sounds both easy and boring, it really was neither. Davis had to work like heck to continue to hold that lead as he had constant challengers and generally more than one at a time. Also, there were a considerable number of yellow flags and each time that yellow bunting waved, it would set up a double file restart snapping at his heels. The track was slick and very technical and one slip up could have cost Davis the lead. 

He had heavy challenges from Dereck Ramirez and Tanner Mullins and finally his most severe challenge was from Jason Hughes. Several times on yellows, Hughes would get up beside Davis and nearly get by, only to have Davis edge out front down the back chute. The last yellow set up a two lap sprint to the finish but Davis remained cool, hit his marks and held off everything that Hughes and Ramirez could throw at him. 

Significantly, it was the first ever USMTS feature win for Davis and he gave much credit in victory lane to his biggest benefactor, J.R. Sartain. Folks will probably recognize Sartain as the owner of Eighty One Speedway in Park City Ks as well as the new owner of Humboldt Speedway, also in Kansas. The win also had to be a big boost for Bill's Built chassis, another Kansas product and the only Bill's Built in the field. 

Jason Hughes, after a down period, looked very strong all weekend and will be a factor it appears, all year. Rodney Sanders had two steady finishes and that kind of consistent running will make him a contender for the hundred grand at the end of the season. 

On the other side of things, it must have been an incredibly frustrating weekend for Ramirez. He was running good on Friday night until he spun with contact and was out of the race and then he came back with a strong effort on Saturday to finish third, only to weigh in light and loose everything. He is now twenty sixth in points after the first weekend with a big mountain to climb to pull off a repeat title. 

Shelby Williams, who lives just down the road from RRP, made a nice comeback from Friday night's disappointment when he faded out of the lead to win the Stock Car feature on Saturday. 

 He started on the pole, led a few laps until being passed by James McMillin. However, Williams got his elbows up, made a repass on McMillin and would lead the rest of the race. It was another one of those one lap sprints after a late yellow but Williams made no mistakes as he drove on for the win. McMillin went for broke on the last lap and he spun in turn four, giving the runner up spot to J. D. Jackson. 

It turned out to be a quirky Factory Stock main event with a surprise finish but not of the pleasant kind. Kyle Blanton would lead the first lap before being passed by last night's winner Michael Smith. Smith would be in front the rest of the way with Rodney White challenging him very closely. White had been the leader on Friday night until his car broke so he was looking for redemption. 

However, Smith would lead up until the final lap when yet again, a yellow would set up a one lap sprint to the finish. White would get a great restart and it appeared that he had stolen the win away from Smith on the final lap. However, word filtered down that White had been DQ'd for a technical issue and Smith would end up getting the win over Tyler Killingsworth and Chad Abernathy. It was frustrating indeed for White who had two features taken away when both appeared to be his. 

The Limited Mods wrapped up the night with a spirited feature race and once again, in a close finish, it was the Limited Mods edging out the B Mods. Early on, it was Robert Vetter and then Kort Morgan holding the top spot. 

However, Rowdy Day moved up from the second row to take the lead and he would then fight off several challenges to get the win. Four times he and John Potter would exchange the top spot but when Potter made a pass on lap sixteen to take over the lead, it seemed like Potter would hold on. 

However, yet again, the yellow would fly late and bunch up the field. Day really turned on the power for that last three lap burst and he would get past Potter who was protecting the low side and then drive away for the win, sweeping the class for the weekend. Potter would settle for second with Dalton Ragsdale third. 

In summation, it was a good weekend of racing. The competition was close and while I personally would have preferred to have less in the way of support classes to keep the shows a little bit shorter in length, they all did a good job of providing entertaining racing. The Modified field was a strong one and looks to remain so all season. Rocket Raceway Park is a nice place and a good one to watch races at and the new owners did a solid job for their first weekend ever. Many veteran owners would kill to get the kind of crowds they pulled in and this track, with some of the modifications that the new owners did to the corners, surface etc. have made this a very entertaining race track to be sure. 

Sorensen Tops USMTS Opener

 The following two reports were temporarily unable to be completed in a more prompt manner due to some strange issues involving the internet, passwords, sea tides and the howling of wolves at the Moon. They are now being presented, late as they may be,  for hopefully, your interest and enlightenment. 

As we slip into the month of March, more and more traveling racing series are presenting their opening events of the 2022 racing season and this weekend's doubleheader would be one of those. On Friday night, March 4th, the United States Modified Touring Series(USMTS) began their twenty fourth season under the direction of Todd and Janet Staley as we all visited the Rocket Raceway Park located about fifteen miles West of Paris Texas on highway 82. These two opening full programs would be the start of what is to become the richest season for the drivers in the history of the USMTS. More big money races and the recent announcement that due to some very generous backers, the USMTS point champion for 2022 will earn one hundred thousand dollars, forging USMTS right up there with the richest of all the traveling series, no matter the class of car. 

And along with the USMTS cars, three other USRA sanctioned divisions would be running two full programs also on what would be a very busy March weekend. 

This would be my first race ever at Rocket Raceway Park, a track previously known as 82 Speedway and East Texas Speedway and several other names also as the track has had a checkered history over the years. This would also mark the very first weekend of racing at this newly named track by new owners Kevin Rogers and Kevin Sustaire. You may recognize their names as the former promoters at RPM Speedway of Texas, where they leased that track Southeast of the Dallas metroplex and had put on some big races over the past couple years. 

Now they have dropped that track and have purchased this quarter mile facility located about an hour and a half Northeast of that same metroplex. RRP is a quarter mile black dirt oval that sits on remote land on what was likely once grazing land. No towns are close by and hopefully no bitchy neighbors to interfere with their racing plans. They just purchased this track in the off season and much hectic work has been done to get the track ready for racing this year. They have bit off a big chunk with their first race ever here being this doubleheader with five and ten thousand dollar shows on the line. 

The track is wide and has fairly good banking and as we would find out, does race very well and when it is tacky like it was for the opening night action, it is a very fast quarter mile that produces much action. Thirty four hundred high rise bleacher seats provide plenty of seating and are constructed of metal and remind me of those grandstands at both Ardmore and Humboldt. In fact, after watching the first night of racing, it seemed to me that the track raced very much like Ardmore does, except that Ardmore is a bit larger. Perhaps the reason that it races so much like Ardmore led to twelve or more drivers taking to the Ardmore track on Tuesday night of this week to get some extra practice on their way South to this track. There was even a nice little pond behind the pits that worked very well for filling up the water trucks. 

I'm sure there are plenty of things that the new owners, pressed for time, have not had the chance to finish up yet and that is understandable but such simple things as painting out aisle markings in the grandstands need to be done. The track needs a scoreboard badly and the p.a. system is spotty, working well in some places but nonexistent for other parts of the grandstand. The lighting is good(except when it goes out in the middle of a feature race which then becomes scary) and there is plenty of spectator parking although it is quite the walk from the parking lot to the grandstands. However, golf cart service for those that needed it was provided( a nice touch).  

Not surprisingly, a power house field of seventy six Modifieds was on hand to try and take home the big money on opening weekend. The other classes were solid too with thirty or more Factory Stocks and Limited Modifieds while only the Stock Car class was smaller in number, largely due to the fact that Stock Cars are new to this region. 

For the second straight year, USMTS is using a format that divided the cars up into heat races, followed by group qualifying within those heats. They then invert the top four in time trials and use passing points from the heats to qualify for the feature or line up for the Last Chance races. It's well documented that I don't like time trials but it seems to me that if time trials are used, then there shouldn't be an invert after qualifying, especially if passing points are used and they skew toward the heat finish, not number of cars passed. In fourteen heats contested over two nights, only two weren't won by drivers that started in the front row so the reward for timing in quickest and starting in row two of a heat is not large, and many of the quick qualifiers has to run Last Chance races because the eight lap heats with very fast cars in front of them gave them little chance to pass. However, the cars still come to race and as long as they do, I doubt that we'll soon see any change to the format. By the way, one thing that time trials virtually guarantees and that is the first race never hits the track at the advertised starting time, something that held true once again this weekend. 

The field was a strong one in the Modified class with eighteen of the top twenty in last year's points back again to try it plus many new racers for the series along with the always tough local Texas drivers. The first lost one driver before the green flag dropped as South Texas driver Broc Bowen had a motor go bad after only seven practice laps on Thursday night and while the rest of the first unloaded, he headed out for home, hoping to get his money back from his pre paid motel rooms for the weekend. One Stock Car was also sent home early too but that was an issue of a car not even close to class and safety rules. 

Seven heats and three Last Chance races that were large enough and talented enough to be called feature races in their own right, would set the grid for Friday night's forty lap main event. Many regulars in the series would not make the cut, thus necessitating a monstrously large six provisional starters and a thirty car feature field. 

Kyle Brown is racing for the 2022 rookie of the year and he would lead the opening two laps of the main event. However, Jason Hughes was very fast and he would drive around Brown and take the top spot. He was challenged by Brown to get the spot back until Kyle was overtaken by Dereck Ramirez and Bo Day. They, along with Mike Hansen, would be the main challengers in the first half of the race. 

A driver to be watched was Dustin Sorensen, who had won a B Feature and started on the seventh row but was moving forward quickly. Just near the halfway point of the race a couple of yellows really shock up the running order. First Hansen, who had been smoking, slowed and went off on the hook while Brown dropped out at this point also. Then, Sorensen and Ramirez, battling for second, got together in turn one with Ramirez getting turned around and clipped by another car and the defending series champ was done and off on a hook also. To be fair, the track was breaking up quite badly in turn one but it was also the fastest way around, so drivers were flying through the ruts, trying to hold of for dear life and keep their cars straight. The collision between Sorensen and Ramirez was likely caused because the cars were unmanageable. 

However, this put Sorensen in second and he began to pressure Hughes for the lead. When Jason hit those same bumps and slid out , Sorensen was right there to take over the lead with just a handful of laps left. Sorensen would pull away then and drive on for the win, remarkable in that he gained so many positions but tainted slightly after he turned around Ramirez, accidental or not.  Rodney Sanders would come from thirteenth to finish third with a steady run as keeping the cars on the ground was key. Nearly half the starting field wasn't around at the end on the blinding fast but increasingly rugged track.  

There were also full shows for the other three classes. A small field of Stock Cars led to a couple heats and a feature while the Factory Stocks and Limited Mods both ran three big heats, a B and a Feature race. Passing points were used to set the fields in these three classes(thankfully no time trials). An oddity occurred when two of the three mains saw yellows on the last lap which resulted in one lap sprint style finishes. 

Trey Melton was the early leader in the Stock Car feature when one of those oh oh moments that you might see once or so in a life time occurred. As the field was roaring down the back chute at full song, suddenly every light on the race track went out! To say it got dark quickly would be an understatement. However, all drivers were successfully able to stop and there were no collisions or cars wandering off course. I had witnessed this one other time and it was equally shocking and surprisingly but on that occasion, no damage resulted either. After about twenty minutes or so, we were back racing just like normal. 

Shelby Williams took over the top spot but the bumpy track was hard for him to navigate and Missouri's James McMillin took over the top spot. He appeared to be home free but a series of late yellows was problematic and on the final, green and white combined restart, he got a terrible restart and was passed for the win by Arkansas' Arlen Stewart. McMillin and Williams trailed. 

The same thing happened in the Factory Stocks where it came down to a one lap sprint. Nate Dixon led the opening laps but was then overtaken by Walter Hamilton. Hamilton looked to be unbeatable until he suddenly broke and that gave Michael Smith the lead. He led through three late race yellows, and then survived a one lap sprint to the finish to edge out Chad Abernathy for the win. Ironically, before the races I talked to Smith who reported that during practice on Thursday, his car was fast but kept missing and he was going to have to replace much of the electrical system. Oddly, Smith runs an alternator and starter business in Paris, but he got the job done satisfactorily to take the win. 

The Limited Modified feature matched that class against the USRA B Mods which were allowed to race against the Limited Mods. This would be a battle of rules as the Limited Mods run bigger and stronger motors and big spoilers but have very primitive suspensions while the B Mods run no spoiler, a motor rules package and a different tire but have more racing type suspensions plus quick change rear ends. One of the B Mod drivers told me that the Limited Mod strategy would be to putt around the corners, keep the cars straight and then drag race down the chutes whereas the B Mods were going to have to gain time in the corners. 

As it turned out, local driver Rowdy Day would dominate the race, having passed early Dalton Ragsdale and then leading the rest of the way. Cody King would drive the wheels off his B Mod, hurtling the bumps which were by this time getting bad and slamming the wall repeatedly in an effort to get the lead. However, he would have to settle for second to Day with Trent Gibby third. 

The crowd was a very good one on a cool March night and the local fans I talked to all had good things to say about the new management and their efforts to get this race facility back up and running properly. With the large number of races though, the many restarts, plus the delay for the lights(out) and one considerable session to try and get the first turn to cooperate, it was very near 1 am before the final checkered waved. Thankfully those that came to see the Mods didn't have to wait until the end as their feature was run third in the running order.